


On top of the ESB

by kruly



Category: The Mindy Project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-12
Updated: 2014-04-12
Packaged: 2018-01-19 01:34:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1450402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kruly/pseuds/kruly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>warning: contains very, very mild spoilers. </p><p>Danny surprises Mindy at her favorite place on Earth and comes clean. This is post-breakup.</p>
            </blockquote>





	On top of the ESB

**Author's Note:**

> based on an anonymous ask received by overanalyzingtelevision.tumblr.com, which read:
> 
> "Finale thoughts aka #TeamProposal2014 - wouldn’t it be so perfect if Danny tries to make his grand gesture at the ESB - and then the pagers go off - and we get another classic “live fast die young” doctor sequence as the writers like to do in the first/last eps, which is how they end up at the hospital, in their SCRUBS. Declaration of love, kiss, proposal, marriage, babies, etc. Not sure if this even would work with the sides info. But the thought makes me happy!"

The first time she came to New York, she was sixteen and on a school-sanctioned field trip with her fellow National Honor Society members. It was only for a day, but it was her first time traveling without her parents, which caused her to feel incredibly cool and adult-like. They were visiting the city as part of an academically-focused conference, but Mindy had an ulterior motive: she was determined to visit the Empire State Building, the place she had dreamed about since she first watched _Sleepless in Seattle_ as a little girl.

When they arrived, she begged and pleaded with her classmates to check out the Empire State Building, but they were far more interested in meandering around Times Square and buying tacky “I Heart New York” souvenirs than spending hours waiting to enter a building. So, she followed them, buying her fill of memorabilia and gifts for Rishi and her parents, while gazing longingly toward the giant building she’d fantasized about for years. It was then she promised herself that one day, she would live in this beautiful bustling city, she would stand at the top of that building, and she would fall in love.

Nearly six years later, she and Gwen graduated from Princeton and moved into a tiny Manhattan apartment. Before they were even unpacked, she dragged her best friend to the top of that gorgeous building, ignoring her complaints about the long wait time and pushy tourists. And as they stood there, overlooking the city, she was so overcome with emotion she started to cry. She was finally in New York, at the most special place in the world. All that was left was to fall in love.

 

***

 

Mindy shakes her head and sighs, folding her arms to brace herself against a sudden gust of wind. How many times had she been here now, over the past decade, and what did she have to show for it? Gwen was married and had a kid, and Mindy had little more than a lot of tears, a failed engagement, and the fifteen pounds she had been struggling to lose since med school. Yet, even after the breakups and the broken engagement, she had never felt this...hopeless.

She’s bumped by a passing tourist with a small child wrapped around his shoulders. She watches as he points to the view of the city and the boy’s eyes light up, and feels the tell-tale signs of tears welling in her own. Taking a deep breath, she wills herself to relax. She's never been in this position before, never felt so lost after a one of her relationships failed. Typically, she was able to pick herself up by the bootstraps with the knowledge that The One was still out there, waiting to swoop her off her feet. That this pain was only temporary, because eventually she would find Him, the guy she would spend the rest of her life with, who would make it all worth it. And usually, that worked.

But not this time. Not after Danny. When he broke up with her, Mindy had been absolutely crushed. She called off work and spent the day in bed, crying and staring at the walls. When she returned to the office, she spent the first few weeks avoiding him, the thought of seeing him at all causing her to feel physically unwell. She lived by the _Sex and the City_ rule that you should only mourn a break up for half the length of the relationship, but found that even after two weeks she didn’t feel any better about it. She still cried sometimes when she thought about him, and still dreamed about him at night. Then three weeks passed, then a month, and nothing really changed. Finally, she admitted to herself that maybe it never would. That maybe the reason her previous methods weren't working was because, for a long time, a secret, unconscious part of her believed that Danny was The One. All of the breakups had been okay because one day, she and Danny would be together and they would be perfect.

And it had seemed that way at first. When they first started dating, she had been so happy. It seemed impossible to stop herself from smiling, not that she tried particularly hard. In the dark, when they laid together, she allowed herself to silently mouth the truth she had recently come to accept, _I love you, I love you, I love you_ , before falling asleep. But then, just as quickly as it started, it was over. He didn’t want to be with her. And she was forced to admit that she had been wrong. Danny wasn’t The One, and they weren’t going to live happily ever after.

And that knowledge hurt more than any breakup she had ever experienced.

Months later, her anger at Danny subdued enough to allow them to enter a slightly awkward friendship that only echoed the closeness they shared before. They went on lunch dates and talked about work and still fought occasionally. But there was a noticeable shift in the way they addressed each other. She averted her eyes if she felt she had been staring at him too long. He didn’t ask her about her dating life, which wasn’t so unusual, but she took great care not to ask about his.

Eventually, though, they began to spend more and more time together, to the point where it seemed like every minute not spent on work was spent with each other. They were spending the majority of their time together, and it wasn't until Danny spent the fourth night in a row sleeping on her couch that Mindy realized that she was still dating him, emotionally at least. That she was still clinging to him like he was her boyfriend, even if they weren’t physical. He was the first person she saw in the morning and the last person she saw at night; they were mistaken for a couple multiple times by people in her building and had eventually stopped correcting them, something Mindy originally shrugged off as laziness but now saw as wishful thinking.

Mindy recognized their relationship was no longer healthy and made the conscious decision to withdraw. She turned down his requests to hang out on the weekends, trying to force some distance between them. Her heart hurts at his disappointed expressions, but she convinces herself it’s for the best. It had officially become harder to be friends with him and know there would never be anything more, than it was to just...not be around him at all.

She brushes a stray lock of hair behind her ear and checks her phone to see it’s almost eight p.m. She casts one last, dejected look over the New York City skyline and turns to see the person she least expects standing in front of her. He gives her a hesitant smile, stuffing a hand in his pocket as he does.

“Hey.”

She takes a step back, unsure of what to make of this. “H-hey, Danny,” she starts, looking around uncertainly. “What are you doing here?”

“I saw your tweet,”  he says simply, holding up his phone as evidence. “‘@AndersonCooper hey sexy. going to the ESB, hope you join me’,” he reads, the corners of his lips upturning slightly. “I don’t think he’s coming.”

He walks to stand beside her as he looks out across the railing. She closes her eyes and relaxes a bit, though her mind is far more focused on her companion than the view. He’s close enough for her to smell his after-shave and the scent briefly makes her mind spin, as she steps away to what she hopes is a platonic distance.

They stay like that for a few minutes when he murmurs, “You know, this is the first time I’ve ever been up here.”

Her mouth drops open in shock. “What? How is that possible, Danny? You’ve lived here for like, ninety years!”

He shrugs, shooting her a sideways glance. “Never had any interest. I didn’t see the point in waiting in line just to check out some old building, you know?”

She can’t even begin to fathom what she’s hearing. “Okay, you have told me some truly outrageous things before, but this by far is the most offensive.”

He just smiles and says nothing, continuing to stare at the skyline. Dusk was falling and the city was lighting up against the sky, causing a gorgeous, scenic effect. She nods toward the view and asks, “Well, now that you’re here, how is it?”

He pauses before saying, “It’s gorgeous. I’ve been missing out.”

She nods, satisfied with this admission.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” he says then. She’s taken off-guard and before she can give a half-hearted protest, he holds up a hand to stop her, continuing. “Come on, Mindy. We both know it’s true. Every time I try to spend time with you, you make excuses so you don’t have to.”

She sighs and accepts it, feeling too tired to lie and tell him he’s wrong. “Well, what did you expect, Danny?” Off his look, she goes on, “We’re friends now, fine. But I can’t magically make myself forget what we had. It’s hard to be around you and just…”

Her voice trails and he casts his gaze away. She shakes her head sadly and tries to find the right words. “Sometimes I think it’s easier to not be with you, than it is to just be your friend.”

“I know,” he says softly, and she looks at him in surprise. “It’s hard for me too. I guess it was a little naive of me to think that things would just go back to normal between us. I mean, you’re such a huge part of my life, and I had to...should have known that being together would change things.”

Though there’s a distinctly nervous tilt to his words, the calmness he exhibits is completely at odds with the increasing fear stirring in Mindy’s brain. This sounds dangerously close to a second a break up, a sort of final end to...whatever their relationship is, and she can’t handle that. She places a hand on the railing and attempts to calm herself, swearing on her great-grandmother’s grave that she will push Danny off the side if he ruins the Empire State Building for her forever by _dumping_ her at the top.

“And I know,” he continues, oblivious to how close he is to his own death, “that things have been complicated between us, but—,”

She interrupts him, wanting to get this over with. “Danny, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want to be with you. I want to be in a relationship with you. For real, this time.”

A stunned silence, the sounds of the noisy city now feeling like background noise. She doesn’t speak for a few moments, and they just stand there as hoards of tourists make around the rooftop, snapping pictures and sharing kisses and hugs. Her mind is whirling at an insane speed, and she wrestles with which thought to voice first. She feels so many emotions at once: happiness, hurt, a little anger, and, for the first time in weeks, hope.

“Danny,” she starts finally, her voice softer than she anticipated. He steps closer, holding eye contact.

“Danny, I care about you so much. So much,” she reiterates, maybe more to herself than to him. She wants to tell him she loves him, but doesn’t see how it would help what she’s about to say. “But I can’t...when you ended things, it _broke_ me,” as if on an ironic cue, her voice cracks at that last part. “And if it happens again—,”

He places a comforting hand to her shoulder. “It won’t. I promise you, this will be different.”

“But how do I know that, Danny? How do I know you won’t get scared again, and call it off? How can I trust you won’t run the minute things get even a little bit tough?”

He steps back and his hand returns to his pocket, his eyebrows dipped like he’s preparing himself to say something. She looks at him, expectantly, wanting so badly to just run into his arms and kiss him but forcing herself to stand her ground. She needs to hear him say he’s changed, but with every second he's silent, her face falls in disappointment.

He’s starting to pull his hand from his pocket when they’re both startled by a sudden commotion on the other side of the roof, turning to see people clapping for a couple that has clearly just gotten engaged. Mindy and Danny watch as a young woman lifts her boyfriend from his knees and engulfs him in a giant kiss, and Mindy’s chest clenches a little, as she watches yet another person have the experience she so desperately wants. She turns back to Danny, who is still staring at the couple and asks, her voice deflated. “You were saying?”

He glances at her, almost as if he’d forgotten she was there. She can’t quite place his expression. “Mindy, I—,”

They’re interrupted again, this time by a loud, signature beeping. Mindy pops open her purse and digs through it for her pager, frowning when she reads what it says. “That’s strange. It’s for Mrs Douglas, but she isn’t due for another eight weeks.”

Danny nods, scanning the message. “Looks like she had an abruption. We gotta get out here.”

He takes her hand and they make a rush for the exit, explaining the situation to a security guard that escorts them through the crowd and gets them out as quickly as possible. Mindy only lets go of his hand once they're on the street, using it to hail a cab. Once they're inside, she instructs the driver to get them to St. Brendan’s.

It’s only a few blocks away away, but Danny hands the guy a twenty and doesn’t ask for any change as they both jump out, being filled in by a nurse as they race toward the locker rooms to get ready for surgery. 

As she changes out of her designer clothes and into a plain blue scrubs, she catches sight of herself in the mirror and smiles, feeling somehow more comfortable here, in this moment, than she ever has anywhere else.

 

***

 

It’s a tough and precarious operation, made more dangerous by the fact the mother was diabetic and losing copious amounts of blood. Mindy leads the surgery with Danny and Peter assisting, and in the end manages to perform one of the best Caesarean sections of her entire career, saving the lives of both the mother and her premature but stable little boy. Mr. Douglas wraps her in a giant hug when he learns the results of the surgery, and she allows him to cry on her shoulder for a few minutes before disentangling herself from his grasp and heading to the doctor’s lounge, exhausted and in need of coffee.

She isn’t surprised to see Danny and Peter are already there, conversing somewhat intently when she enters. When he sees her, Peter stands and gives her a slow clap, capping it with a “Way to go, Dr. L!” as she makes her way to the coffee maker. “You were like the George Foreman of OBGYNs in there.”

She grins, pouring herself a cup. “Thank you, Peter. I don’t quite understand what the inventor of quality grills has to do with me delivering a baby, but thank you. I’m just glad Mrs Douglas is okay, and that Mr Douglas agreed to name the baby after me.”

Peter raises an eyebrow and she sighs, “Okay, he said he’d _think_ about naming him after me. But seeing as I basically saved their lives, you’d think he’d be a lot more willing.”

“That’s what I love about you, Mindy,” Peter says, his sarcasm lightened by his obvious respect. “You let nothing get in the way of your humility.”

“Thank you.”

She sips from her cup and sneaks a glance toward Danny, who’s been strangely quiet throughout. He doesn’t notice her staring however, as he’s too busy exchanging pointed looks with Peter. Always one to take a hint, Peter gets up from the couch and says something about checking out for the night, leaving the two of them alone. Mindy pretends not to notice the thumbs up he gives Danny before he goes.

She takes a seat in the opposite chair and draws up her feet, crossing her legs as she waits for the conversation that’s obviously coming. As if on cue, Danny clears his throat and turns to her. “You really were fantastic tonight, Mindy. Really amazing work.”

“Thanks,” she says, and takes another sip, anxiety building up in her again as she remembers where they left off. He faces her fully, sighing before he starts. “Look, Mindy, about what I said earlier—,”

“It’s okay,” she interjects, not wanting to hear him call it a mistake. Even if they can’t be together, it doesn’t mean she didn’t enjoy knowing he still cared. “You don’t have to take it back, or whatever. We can just pretend it never happened.”

“I don’t want that,” he says firmly. She looks at him and he’s staring at her so intently she can hardly breath.  Hands shaking, slightly, she places her cup on the table and prepares herself for what he’s going to say. “I don’t want to pretend anymore."

“Then what do you want?”

“I want to be with you. For good,” he says, and her breath catches in her throat. “I’m sorry for everything that happened before. I didn’t want to hurt you, and I thought...I was just scared. I was a coward, like you said—,”

“Danny—,”

“No, I was. You were right. I was so afraid of losing you that I was willing to let you go. And now I realize that isn’t what I want at all. What I want is you and me together for the long haul. I’m tired of living without you, Mindy,” he says, voice breaking on the last words. He swallows before he shrugs with a clear wetness in his eyes. “I’m just tired.”

She feels the tears coming and tries to push them back, struggling to comprehend what he’s saying. Within seconds, he’s grabbing her hand and kneeling in front of her, gazing into her eyes with such earnestness she can’t stop the tears from falling.

“You asked me that night,” he says, voice rough and cracking with emotion. “You asked me why I kissed you, why I started this that night on the plane. And it’s because I love you, I’ve been in love with you for a long time. And when I reached for you and you weren’t there...I knew. I couldn't live another second without showing you how much you mean to me.”

He looks down at the hand he’s clutching in his own and she tightens her grip, unwilling to let him go. He lays a soft kiss to her knuckle before looking up and continuing, “Seeing you hide from Cliff whenever he was around, the whole thing with Christina—I got afraid that one day, that would be us. That one day I’d mess things up and you’d never want to see me again, and I’d lose you. And that scared the shit out of me, Mindy. It still does.”

She doesn’t notice him use his free hand to reach into his pocket, as she’s too enraptured by his words and what they mean.

“I can’t promise I won’t get scared again,” he tells her, their eyes locked. “Or that I won’t doubt myself and my ability to be the guy you deserve, or need. But I can promise I’ll try. I’ll try harder than I’ve ever tried before, Mindy, I swear. We’ll make it work. I’ll make it work.”

It’s then that she sees it. Well, sees the hint of it. His hand has slipped out of his pocket and through the blurriness caused by her tears, she makes out the small black box he holds in his hand. Her own slips out of his grasp and she gasps, instinctively smoothing her hair and touching a self-conscious hand to her glasses.

“Oh my god!” she musters, wholly in shock. “Danny, you can’t—I’m still in my scrubs, I look disgusting!”

He places the box on the arm of her chair and pulls her hands away from her face, caressing her cheek as he does so. “Stop it,” he murmurs. “You’re perfect.”

Hearing that and seeing the love, genuine love in his eyes forces her over the edge. She’s crying and he’s removing her glasses, wiping her tears away with the sleeve of his scrubs. He cleans her glasses on his shirt and goes to place them back on her, when their eyes catch and she giggles under the familiarity of the moment. He smiles at her then and slips them on, hands lingering on the sides of her face for a moment, before he reaches for the box.

She places a hand on top of his to stop him, and directs his gaze to her as says, “I love you, Danny,”  It pales in comparison to the long, emotionally-charged speech he just gave her, but she has nothing prepared and just needs him for him to know it. To hear it now, before he proceeds. “I love you more than anything.”

His smile is unlike any she’s ever seen him wear. She pulls her hand away and he takes the black box in his hands, holding it in front of her with a steady, determined gaze. She’s nodding before the words even leave his lips, but he carries on anyway.

“Marry me, Min,” he says simply.

And she says _yes, yes, yes_ , as she pulls him in for a desperate, perfect kiss.

 


End file.
